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Bad Girls: Agency, Revenge, and Redemption in Contemporary Drama

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ꢀe Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Bad Girls: Agency, Revenge, and Redemption in Contemporary Drama

Courtney Watson, Ph.D.

Radford University Roanoke, Virginia, United States

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Cultural movements including #TimesUp and #MeToo have contributed momentum to the demand for and development of smart, justified female criminal characters in contemporary television drama. ese women are representations of shiſting power dynamics, and they possess agency as they channel their desires and fury into success, redemption, and revenge. Building on works including Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Netflix’s

Orange is the New Black, dramas produced since 2016—including e Handmaid’s Tale, Ozark, and Killing

Eve—have featured the rise of women who use rule-breaking, rebellion, and crime to enact positive change. Keywords: #TimesUp, #MeToo, crime, television, drama, power, Margaret Atwood, revenge, Gone Girl,

Orange is the New Black, e Handmaid’s Tale, Ozark, Killing Eve

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From the recent popularity of the anti-heroine in novels and films like Gone Girl to the treatment of complicit women and crime-as-rebellion in Hulu’s adaptation of e Handmaid’s Tale to the cultural watershed moments of the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements, there has been a groundswell of support for women seeking justice both within and outside the law. Behavior that once may have been dismissed as madness or instability—Beyoncé laughing wildly while swinging a baseball bat in her revenge-fantasy music video “Hold Up” in the wake of Jay-Z’s indiscretions comes to mind—can be examined with new understanding. Women are angry, and that anger is being mirrored and justified in popular culture. As British writer Sophie Heawood noted in 2014, “e older I get, the more I see how women are described as having gone mad, when what they’ve actually become is knowledgeable and powerful and fucking furious (Heawood).” Hold up, indeed. Contemporary narratives have not only made room for furious women in their stories, they’ve begun to celebrate them as empowered and justified agents for change. ere has been an evolution in the trope of the bad girl; while she was once merely a jealous, petty, and vindictive trouble-maker—Nellie Olsen at any age— today’s bad girl is a woman with purpose who tends to be decidedly darker than her beloved male criminal counterpart: she’s smart, she’s ruthless, and she’s had it with laws and oppressive social conventions. Most importantly, she refuses to be quiet about it.
e concept of the bad girl has evolved in the wake of recent cultural and political events: her genesis, her indiscretions, how she is punished—because women who break the rules are always punished, one way or another—and her fight for agency and redemption. An exploration of criminal (or, in some cases, arbitrarily criminalized) behavior perpetrated by women in e Handmaid’s Tale, Ozark, and Killing Eve offers compelling insight into shiſting cultural desires and expectations. In a recent cultural landscape wherein Walter White was revered while his long-suffering wife was so vilified that the actress portraying her received death threats (Gunn), it is now worthwhile to examine the cultural influence of recent political movements and their continued impact on the characterization of criminal women in contemporary drama.

GONE GIRL

While there are many notable productions worthy of discussion, it is the success of Gillian Flynn’s bestselling 2012 novel Gone Girl, which was rapidly adapted into a 2014 film starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck, that marked a cultural flashpoint for the treatment of women’s anger and criminal behavior in contemporary drama. e thriller centers around characters Nick and Amy Dunne—both abysmal—in the wake of Amy’s disappearance, which plays out in the bright glare of the 24-hour news cycle as Nick is tried in the court of public opinion. However, what at first appears to be a case of an unfaithful husband killing his inconvenient wife takes a sudden turn when it is revealed to Nick—and the reader—that Amy staged her own kidnapping as revenge for Nick’s indiscretions and other failures. While the plot is unpredictable, Amy’s anger is cold and constant; Amy is no heroine, but her justified fury strikes a chord with the audience.
Gone Girl gained traction because it tapped into the outrage that would soon be expressed by the
#TimesUp and #metoo movements. While the novel Gone Girl and its subsequent film adaptation received acclaim, there was one specific passage in the book that well-captures the ideas and undercurrent of anger that have defined the era of #metoo and #TimesUp. In a passage that went viral and spawned dozens of think pieces, Flynn captured the essence of a problematic, real-life female archetype that is diametrically opposed to women’s agency, shoring up the very patriarchy that oppresses her. Flynn calls her the Cool Girl:

Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the

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world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl. (Flynn 210)

While Flynn directs no shortage of vitriol at men throughout her novel, she places blame for the illusion of the Cool Girl on women: “Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl…And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: ey’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be” (Flynn 210). Flynn identifies these women, the wannabe Cool Girls, as being complicit in the perpetuation of what is ultimately a dangerously disempowering persona and she takes them to task for their disillusionment.
As she is presented by Flynn, the Cool Girl is an unfortunate trend, a cultural curiosity whose harm is largely localized to herself. She is annoying to those who know that her performative coolness is just that, a show. She does not seem to be dangerous until her actions are examined on a larger scale and the misogyny inherent to her existence becomes apparent: “ [She] likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not a Cool Girl? Because he says things like: ‘I like strong women.’ If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because ‘I like strong women’ is code for ‘I hate strong women’)” (Flynn 210). When examined beyond the individual and as a collective, the approval the Cool Girl seeks transforms into a desire with troubling implications, particularly when she becomes a voting bloc. When the Cool Girl evolves into the complicit woman, she actively reinforces power structures that harm and disenfranchise women, beginning in the voting booth.
e concept of complicity has taken on fresh urgency in the era of the Trump administration, which is itself closely associated with women described as being complicit. When discussing complicity, the 53% of white women who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election (CNN) is a frequently-cited figure— though it is lower than the percentage of white women who supported Republican candidates in previous elections (Simmons). Women employed in Trump’s administration are also oſten described as being complicit in the administration’s efforts to shore up a distinctly white patriarchy at the expense of women, minoritized communities , and the socioeconomically marginalized and disenfranchised. e association between women either affiliated with or who support the Trump administration has especially been emphasized in popular culture, with television shows like Saturday Night Live frequently lampooning public figures including Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and, perhaps most memorably, Ivanka Trump. Trump was parodied by actress Scarlett Johannson in a perfume ad sketch for a fictional fragrance called Complicit, “for the woman who could stop all of this…but won’t” (Johannson). e sketch went viral, amassing nearly ten million views on YouTube alone.

THE HANDMAID’S TALE

Complicity, and the role that women play in protecting the social, cultural, and political institutions that put them at a disadvantage, has become a much more frequent topic of discussion since 2016. While it has been particularly reflected in television in both comedy and drama, it is in dramatic television where the vestiges of the Cool Girl are visible in the more dangerous and vulnerable complicit woman. In shows like Hulu’s e Handmaid’s Tale—an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel that imagines the total disempowerment of women with startling swiſtness and alacrity aſter a revolution carried out by religious zealots—it is made clear how essential complicit women are to the continuity of Gilead’s oppressive regime. e social structure of women in Gilead is caste-like, and while some women are treated much, much more violently than others, all are oppressed and wholly disempowered.

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e idea that no woman is safe is emphasized in the second season finale when Serena-Joy Waterford, the wife of Commander Frederick Waterford and herself an architect of Gilead, is severely punished with the amputation of a finger aſter arguing that women should be taught to read and then reading aloud a passage from the Bible that supports her beliefs (e Word). It is a particularly dark moment in the series that serves to put cracks in Serena Joy’s faith in Gilead’s harsh theocratic patriarchy, if not to break the spell entirely. Serena Joy’s punishment is a shocking, violent scene that eventually leads to her gaining some clarity about how even the most privileged women in Gilead—and she is at the top of this social strata—are completely powerless under the system they are essential to upholding. Serena Joy’s fear of her husband and the monster of Gilead she helped build and support resonate most deeply with the audience in her moving final scene of the episode when she surrenders her daughter (who is June’s biological daughter) to June. With the aid of others who are rebelling against Gilead, June seizes her opportunity to escape with the child, and Serena Joy is the only one who can stop her. In an uncharacteristic moment of clarity, Serena Joy instead helps June and the child escape because she realizes that her daughter will never be safe in Gilead (e Word).
While Serena Joy’s prospects are grim aſter her punishment, they are still far better than nearly every other woman in Gilead’s society, where women at every level suffer, though in different ways. e most privileged women are married to powerful men who hold quasi-military positions in Gilead’s government and who are stylized with titles like “Commander.” ese wives are easily identified by their teal, 1950s style, tea-length dresses, and high-heeled pumps, evoking a bygone. e color of their wardrobe is rich but placid, and their pearl necklaces are luminous but understated. e wives are women designed to blend into the background of their plush, gilded surroundings.
Beyond the wives of men like Commander Waterford, the rest of the women in society exist only to serveGilead.elessfortunatewomenofGileadarealsocolor-codedforrapididentification.Fromthecomplicit aunts who enforce the training of handmaids, to the workers and slaves who shovel radioactive waste at sites out west, secondary women are clothed in drab, shapeless attire like refuse to be discarded. e handmaids, famously, don startling scarlet cloaks; the color serves to represent these women as the child-bearing lifeblood of Gilead as well as branding them as fallen, criminalized women—adulterers, lesbians, protestors—who are atoning for their past sins by serving the nation. eir wardrobe serves as a re-imagined scarlet letter, one that cannot be concealed. In a notable subversion of the law, the cloak also comes to symbolize the impending revolution: “ey should never have given us uniforms if they didn’t want us to be an army” (e Handmaid’s Tale). ere is a marked narrative shiſt in the story when the symbol of the handmaids’ oppression is co-opted to represent their resistance. Significantly, this symbol has also been adopted as a visual form of protest in

  • the United States.
  • Perhaps more than any other show on television, e Handmaid’s Tale is viewed

as an artistic reaction to the political and cultural events that have taken place in the United States since 2016. Writer Celia Wren described the show as a galvanizing touchstone, saying “the series has struck a chord with Americans chafing at the policies and personality of President Trump, whom many consider an exemplar of misogynistic male privilege. Real-life protestors have recently donned red-and-white garb to demonstrate against what they see as infringements on women’s rights around the country (Wren 30 Commonweal).” As a show deeply rooted in themes of sin, transgression, and rebellion, images from e Handmaid’s Tale have become powerful and widely recognized symbols of protest.
Margaret Atwood herself has been vocal about similarities she sees between e Handmaid’s Tale and the current political climate. In a June 2017 Boston Review interview with Junot Diaz--who would be accused of verbal and sexual abuse during the #TimesUp movement less than a year later (Alter)--Atwood discussed correlations she saw between the novel and reality: “It’s not only Trump. e general climate in some parts of the United States is certainly heading in a Handmaid’s Tale direction. And that is why the recent sit-ins in the state legislatures were so immediately understandable, with groups of women in Handmaid costumes turning

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up...while an all-male batch of lawmakers were passing laws on women’s health issues” (Atwood 149). ese protests serve as a startling visual representation of women’s anger and their willingness to object to unjust laws and lawmakers. at these protestors don the attire of handmaids and risk arrest and criminal charges to express their outrage speaks volumes about the cultural impact of the show.
Atwood and Diaz go on to discuss how every human rights atrocity committed in e Handmaid’s
Tale was rooted in history and had happened in the past, and, in some cases like stoning, is still legal in multiple countries. is idea is discussed by Atwood at greater length with Olivia Aylmer in an April 2018 Vanity Fair interview, wherein Atwood describes the second season of e Handmaid’s Tale as ‘a call to action’ (Aylmer). Aylmer compares the show to moments in history characterized by deep oppression, saying: “e story was always designed to depict forms of injustice that have really happened, and as a form of witness literature--a genre with deep, resonant historical roots” (Aylmer). e Nazis and Stalin are both referenced for context, with Atwood citing poet Anna Akhmatova as a particular inspiration (Aylmer). Over the course of both interviews, however, Atwood finds the narrative of oppression inextricably linked to political regimes.
Like Wren and Atwood, Katrina Spencer also attributed the hype surrounding the show, at least in part, to emotional fallout sparked by the 2016 election results. According to Spencer, the timing of the first season of the show--amidst a confluence of galvanizing political events--also contributed to the intense interest it sparked in critics and viewers alike:

Remember: when the first episodes were released, Donald Trump had just taken office as president, having made some tasteless and misogynistic comments...the #MeToo movement had yet to garner its national following; the wildly popular Netflix series Orange is the New Black, with its largely female cast, had become a household name; and, of course, one of the most qualified women in history, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, had lost the election that would have allowed her to steer the most powerful country on the planet. e world, in a word, was abuzz with interest in women being centered in narratives and treated as human beings deserving of respect, recognition, and rights. (Spencer 1)

It is interesting that Spencer mentions Orange is the New Black as a precursor to the success and recognition of e Handmaid’s Tale as a vital piece of cultural commentary, because, in many ways, it was the success of Orange is the New Black that made it viable for streaming services to greenlight the production of gritty dramas that focused on women. e show is remarkable for the ways in which it has developed stories of incarcerated women who have been marginalized by society, and for the agency the characters are given. e show is particularly meaningful for the way it thoughtfully evaluates criminality, a theme that is explored at

length in e Handmaid’s Tale.

Criminalization is a strong undercurrent throughout e Handmaid’s Tale thus far. In flashback scenes, viewers see the erosion of women’s rights--a change that is gradual at first, and then soberingly rapid-- until the point that being merely a woman is practically a criminal act. In the third episode of the first season of the show, Offred reflects on the erosion of women’s rights, lamenting that she didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late: “Now I’m awake to the world. I was asleep before. at’s how we let it happen. When they slaughtered Congress, we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn’t wake up then either. ey said it would be temporary. Nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bathtub, you’d be boiled to death before you knew it” (e Handmaid’s Tale). Flashback scenes show specific moments of major change in the nation that would become Gilead.
As Spencer observes, “the women of reproductive age are no longer seen as people but merely beings that harbor viable wombs...these women are broadly stripped of their autonomy and agency so they can serve

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as fertile, governmentally monitored units (Spencer 1).” Within Gilead, women are stripped of all their rights, from owning property and having jobs and bank accounts to reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. Any form of resistance is recognized by the state as being a criminal act and the women and men who defy Gilead’s laws are punished severely in ways that include: isolation, enucleation, genital mutilation, dismemberment, and public execution by hanging, drowning, and firing squad. e corpses of the executed are leſt to rot in the open air, where they serve as a stark reminder of the consequences of disobedience. Offred and the other handmaids engage in criminal behavior with both small rebellions and major transgressions throughout the series; the women--and the audience--find freedom in these criminal acts. ough the punishments are severe, these acts of defiance against Gilead are also life-sustaining.
Atwood’s description of Season Two of e Handmaid’s Tale as a ‘call to action’ (Aylmer) is well-aligned with the character arc of protagonist June, played with simmering fury by Elisabeth Moss. While the first season of the show explored the many brutal ways Offred--the patriarchal name assigned to June as the property of Commander Fred Waterford—was victimized by Gilead, Season Two focuses on how June--and many other women and some men—rebel against the oppressive regime. e movement in June’s character arc is quite clear as she reclaims more and more of her identity through acts of rebellion. For example, the pilot episode of the series is titled “Offred,” which theorist Judith Butler may describe as demonstrable subordination (Butler 53), an idea that is explored in her seminal work Gender Trouble. Within the confines of Gilead, June is so stripped of her agency that she can only be identified in relation to the man who owns her. However, the first episode of the second season is titled “June,” hinting at the idea that June is wresting back her autonomy.
is change is fully realized by the final episode of the season, entitled “e Word.” e episode opens with June folding the clothes of recently-executed Eden--a 15-year-old girl forced into marriage and then convicted of adultery—and reciting a litany of titles held by women: “Wife. Handmaid. Martha. Mother. Daughter. Girlfriend. Queen. Bitch. Criminal. Sinner. Heretic. Prisoner” (e Handmaid’s Tale). e latter part of the list describes women who have transgressed against Gilead, and it sets the tone for the rest of the episode. Transgression could very well be the theme of the episode; at one point, June laughs in the Commander’s face—an action that is perhaps the most transgressive of them all. is scene displays what Atwood describes as the quintessential difference between men and women: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them” (Atwood). is idea and the concept of women’s laughter as a means of subversion is explored in great depth by Kathleen Rowe, who describes laughter as “…a powerful means for self-definition and a weapon for feminist appropriation” (Rowe 3). Viewed through this lens, there is nothing June could have done to undermine Commander Waterford more, and they both know it.
e final image of Season Two is chilling. Having just handed her daughter to Emily, another handmaid who is being smuggled into Canada in the back of a truck that is supposed to be taking June as well, June stands alone in the red-tinged darkness of an empty Boston tunnel. Rather than escaping with her infant daughter, June chooses to stay and make a stand in order to rescue her older daughter, Hannah. June pulls up her deep red hood and the light transforms her face from that of a non-threatening young woman to a sinister figure who appears determined to unleash hell upon Gilead. As the camera draws in closer, the song “Burning Down the House” by e Talking Heads begins to play, and the lyrics offer a preview of what is in store for Gilead’s oppressive regime in Season ree of e Handmaid’s Tale: “Watch out you might get what you’re aſter/Boom babies strange but not a stranger/I’m an ordinary guy/Burning down the house/Hold tight wait till the party’s over/Hold tight we’re in for nasty weather/ere has got to be a way/Burning down the house/Here’s your ticket pack your bag/Time for jumpin’ overboard… Fightin’ fire with fire” (Talking Heads). Having successfully smuggled Commander Waterford’s only child out of Gilead and made his wife Serena Joy an accomplice in the process, June has won major battles in her fight against the regime, and as the credits roll

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    Jastics Delays’ Rsveüge- . ■ C il 1X1 a i - . : . "Г / с;. Justice Delays Revenge- The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge Tradition A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Letters and the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Language and Literature ta «4^^ by Erhan Kukner September, 1991 PR. Л.65'4 ' S63 è- 3079 We certify that we have read this thesis and that in our combined opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Asst.Prof.Dr. Hamit Çalışkan (A d v i s o r ) L y ■'· Prof.Dr. Bülent Bozkurt (Committee Member) ' ^ 1 Dr. Laurence A. Raw Approved for the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences 1 1 Abstract Justice Delays Revenge- The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge Tradition Erhan Kükner M.A. In English Literature Advisor: Asst.Prof-Dr. Hamit Çalışkan September, 1991 The Spanish Tragedv. one of the best examples of English Renaissance drama, contributed towards the establishment of the revenge tragedy genre, which gained popularity in the years to come. Kyd in this play not only indicates that when the law is unjust, man will resort to revenge; but also demonstrates that a citizen should obey the ruler and regard revenge as a revolt against the state. Tl-is play tells the story of Hieronimo, who expects the murderer^ of his son to be punished. However, Hieronimo gradually discovers that the institutions of justice are useless and therefore takes revenge.
  • OMC | Data Export

    OMC | Data Export

    Amanda Potter, "Entry on: The Sarah Jane Adventures (Series): Eye of the Gorgon by Phil Ford", peer-reviewed by Susan Deacy and Elżbieta Olechowska. Our Mythical Childhood Survey (Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2018). Link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/myth-survey/item/550. Entry version as of September 25, 2021. Phil Ford The Sarah Jane Adventures (Series): Eye of the Gorgon United Kingdom (2007) TAGS: Gorgons Greek mythology Medusa Perseus We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover. General information Title of the work The Sarah Jane Adventures (Series): Eye of the Gorgon Country of the First Edition United Kingdom Country/countries of popularity United Kingdom Original Language English First Edition Date 2007 Phil Ford. The Sarah Jane Adventures: Eye of the Gorgon. First Edition Details London: Penguin, 2007. ISBN 978-1-40590-399-8 Official Website Official BBC website (accessed: October 17, 2018) Genre Adaptations, Fantasy fiction, Illustrated works, Novels Children (Children’s Science Fiction television novelization, with Target Audience large print and colour photographs from the television episodes) Amanda Potter, Open University, Author of the Entry [email protected] Susan Deacy, University of Roehampton, [email protected] Peer-reviewer of the Entry Elżbieta Olechowska, University of Warsaw, [email protected] 1 This Project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 681202, Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges, ERC Consolidator Grant (2016–2021), led by Prof.
  • Understanding Revenge Pornography: Public Perceptions of Revenge Pornography And

    Understanding Revenge Pornography: Public Perceptions of Revenge Pornography And

    1 Understanding Revenge Pornography: Public Perceptions of Revenge Pornography and Victim Blaming Bothamley, S. Tully, R.J. (2017) Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research Abstract Purpose: The disclosure of private images with the intent of causing distress is often described as ‘revenge pornography’. In the UK, this newly legislated crime has received a high level of media attention following several high profile cases, however there is a paucity of research in this area. Methods: 168 adults (UK general public) completed an online survey using a vignette approach. Views of the influence of perpetrator-victim relationship length and reason for termination were considered alongside perception of an offence, the necessity of police intervention, what extent revenge pornography creates psychological harm in victims, and victim blaming. Findings: Perpetrator-victim relationship length and reason for relationship breakdown did not influence perceptions of victim blame. Participants believed that the situation described in the vignettes was likely to be an offence, and that police intervention is somewhat necessary. Participants believed that the scenario was ‘very likely’ to create fear, and ‘moderately likely’ to create psychological/mental harm in victims. In line with the literature relating to stalking and sexual assault, men blamed the victim significantly more than women. Furthermore, women rated police intervention significantly more necessary than men. Implications: The public are recognising that revenge pornography is an offence, with consequences being fear and psychological harm, showing an awareness of the impact on victims. However, there are sex differences in the perceptions of revenge pornography and victim blame and this could be addressed by raising awareness of this crime.
  • UC Merced UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

    UC Merced UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

    UC Merced UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal Title Gender, Sexuality, and Inter-Generational Differences in Hmong and Hmong Americans Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29q2t238 Journal UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal, 8(2) Author Abidia, Layla Publication Date 2016 DOI 10.5070/M482030778 Undergraduate eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Differences in Hmong and Hmong Americans Gender, Sexuality, and Inter-Generational Differences in Hmong and Hmong Americans Layla Abidia University of California, Merced Author Notes: Questions and comments can be address to [email protected] 1 Differences in Hmong and Hmong Americans Abstract Hmong American men and women face social and cultural struggles where they are expected to adhere to Hmong requirements of gender handed down to them by their parents, and the expectations of the country they were born in. The consequence of these two expectations of contrasting values results in stress for everyone involved. Hmong parents are stressed from not having a secure hold on their children in a foreign environment, with no guarantee that their children will follow a “traditional” route. Hmong American men are stressed from growing up in a home environment that grooms them to be a focal point of familial attention based on gender, with the expectation that they will eventually be responsible for an entire family; meanwhile, they are living in this American national environment that stresses that the ideal is that gender is irrelevant in the modern world. Hmong American women are stressed and in turn hold feelings of resentment that they are expected to adhere to traditional familial roles by their parents in addition to following a path to financial success the same as men.
  • THE MODERATE SOPRANO Glyndebourne’S Original Love Story by David Hare Directed by Jeremy Herrin

    THE MODERATE SOPRANO Glyndebourne’S Original Love Story by David Hare Directed by Jeremy Herrin

    PRESS RELEASE IMAGES CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE Twitter | @ModerateSoprano Facebook | @TheModerateSoprano Website | www.themoderatesoprano.com Playful Productions presents Hampstead Theatre’s THE MODERATE SOPRANO Glyndebourne’s Original Love Story By David Hare Directed by Jeremy Herrin LAST CHANCE TO SEE DAVID HARE’S THE MODERATE SOPRANO AS CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED WEST END PRODUCTION ENTERS ITS FINAL FIVE WEEKS AT THE DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRE. STARRING OLIVIER AWARD WINNING ROGER ALLAM AND NANCY CARROLL AS GLYNDEBOURNE FOUNDER JOHN CHRISTIE AND HIS WIFE AUDREY MILDMAY. STRICTLY LIMITED RUN MUST END SATURDAY 30 JUNE. Audiences have just five weeks left to see David Hare’s critically acclaimed new play The Moderate Soprano, about the love story at the heart of the foundation of Glyndebourne, directed by Jeremy Herrin and starring Olivier Award winners Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll. The production enters its final weeks at the Duke of York’s Theatre where it must end a strictly limited season on Saturday 30 June. The previously untold story of an English eccentric, a young soprano and three refugees from Germany who together established Glyndebourne, one of England’s best loved cultural institutions, has garnered public and critical acclaim alike. The production has been embraced by the Christie family who continue to be involved with the running of Glyndebourne, 84 years after its launch. Executive Director Gus Christie attended the West End opening with his family and praised the portrayal of his grandfather John Christie who founded one of the most successful opera houses in the world. First seen in a sold out run at Hampstead Theatre in 2015, the new production opened in the West End this spring, with Roger Allam and Nancy Carroll reprising their original roles as Glyndebourne founder John Christie and soprano Audrey Mildmay.
  • Bad Girls to the Rescue an Exhibition of Feminist Art from the 1990S Has Much to Teach Us Today

    Bad Girls to the Rescue an Exhibition of Feminist Art from the 1990S Has Much to Teach Us Today

    PERSPECTIVES Bad Girls to the Rescue An exhibition of feminist art from the 1990s has much to teach us today By Maura Reilly n my new book Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics did just that—and within a lineage worth revisiting as the present of Curating (Thames & Hudson), I devoted a chapter to adjusts for oversights of the past. I exhibitions that have lingered in the historical record for their Though most commonly associated with a notorious run at the commitment to “Resisting Masculinism and Sexism.” As what New Museum in 1994—in a tradition that would directly influence constitutes sexual prejudice continues to evolve, it’s imperative “Trigger” decades later—the first iteration of a series of shows titled that curators continually query and challenge the gender norms “Bad Girls” was organized separately the year before for the Institute by which we are all confined. “Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a of Contemporary Arts in London (followed by a presentation at the Weapon,” a recent exhibition at the New Museum in New York, Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow). Curated by Kate Bush, NEW YORK. ART, NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY FRED SCRUTON/COURTESY THIS PAGE: RIGHTS SOCIETY/ARS ARTIST OPPOSITE: ©DEBORAH KASS/PHOTO COURTESY 32 ARTNEWS Perspectives.indd 1 2/16/18 5:12 PM Emma Dexter, and Nicola White, the exhibition celebrated a new spirit of playfulness, tactility, and perverse humor in the work of six British and American women artists: Helen Chadwick, Dorothy Cross, Nicole Eisenman, Rachel Evans, Nan Goldin, and Sue Williams—each of whom was represented by several works.
  • Sexuality Is Fluid''[1] a Close Reading of the First Two Seasons of the Series, Analysing Them from the Perspectives of Both Feminist Theory and Queer Theory

    Sexuality Is Fluid''[1] a Close Reading of the First Two Seasons of the Series, Analysing Them from the Perspectives of Both Feminist Theory and Queer Theory

    ''Sexuality is fluid''[1] a close reading of the first two seasons of the series, analysing them from the perspectives of both feminist theory and queer theory. It or is it? An analysis of television's The L Word from the demonstrates that even though the series deconstructs the perspectives of gender and sexuality normative boundaries of both gender and sexuality, it can also be said to maintain the ideals of a heteronormative society. The [1]Niina Kuorikoski argument is explored by paying attention to several aspects of the series. These include the series' advertising both in Finland and the ("Seksualność jest płynna" - czy rzeczywiście? Analiza United States and the normative femininity of the lesbian telewizyjnego "The L Word" z perspektywy płci i seksualności) characters. In addition, the article aims to highlight the manner in which the series depicts certain characters which can be said to STRESZCZENIE : Amerykański serial telewizyjny The L Word stretch the normative boundaries of gender and sexuality. Through (USA, emitowany od 2004) opowiada historię grupy lesbijek this, the article strives to give a diverse account of the series' first two i biseksualnych kobiet mieszkających w Los Angeles. Artykuł seasons and further critical discussion of The L Word and its analizuje pierwsze dwa sezony serialu z perspektywy teorii representations. feministycznej i teorii queer. Chociaż serial dekonstruuje normatywne kategorie płci kulturowej i seksualności, można ______________________ również twierdzić, że podtrzymuje on ideały heteronormatywnego The analysis in the article is grounded in feminist thinking and queer społeczeństwa. Przedstawiona argumentacja opiera się m. in. na theory. These theoretical disciplines provide it with two central analizie takich aspektów, jak promocja serialu w Finlandii i w USA concepts that are at the background of the analysis, namely those of oraz normatywna kobiecość postaci lesbijek.